Help me find/pick a 16" barrel

[Mustangfreek]

I posted it?s a Faxon 16 inch Grendel barrel and Faxon only offers it in a gunner.

So how does it shoot?

[phishfood]

I have a 16" Faxon Gunner.

Keep in mind that I am a rather poor trigger yanker, but it seems to be around 1-1 1/2" inch shooter. Leads me to believe that in competent hands, it would be a rather good barrel.

[PNWTargets]

I have multiple 16 inch Faxon barrels in .556 and 6.5 and they are on point.

[Mustangfreek]

How are these gassed?

As in port sizes. under/over gassed?

Adj block needed?

[achristian8]

I bought a Barrel from AR Performance years ago for a 68 spc. The rifle had problems with short stroking. After a lot of troubleshooting I found that the gas port was undersized. I would suggest you look at another company. The crappy website and political statements on the website should tell you all you need to know about the company.

[grayfox]

MidwayUSA has 6.5 16" Faxon barrels, $235.
ARP is not worth your time or your dime, I am a former customer but sold them all and won't buy again.
Keep an eye on Arm or Ally. com, they're out of stock but always have the best prices for both Faxon and for Ballistic Advantage, both of these are in your price range and plenty accurate. The GB is also a good deal. So there are 3 good options for ya.

[Kswhitetails]

I've got two Faxon GB barrels from some time back. A 16" I built for my dad, and a 12.5" I built and run myself. Both are on point. Both needed the chamber polished, but I was okay with that personally as it allowed me to tinker a bit and made the builds more fun. Both barrels shoot better than their prices say they should. Both Nitrided, with BFT's EE rifling (Easy Engraving).

I started Grendel with an ARP barrel. When I sent a few questions regarding it's specs, he referred me to the website and asked if I read? First contact with a customer. In hindsite, it was a good lesson. Ask questions before buying. He wasn't friendly, or interested in my questions. The barrel was consistently 1.5 MOA with factory ammo. It was a 20", and it ran fine. It wasn't overly impressive, but then again, it was my first Grendel barrrel. Either way, I wouldn't buy anything from him again personally. Politics aside, he wasn't great to deal with, which is enough for me to not recommend his products.

[trdjohn]

I'll pile on here against this guy. When I was first looking at getting Grendel barrel, he was on the list. They were cheap enough "on sale" and reviews were decent compared to other barrels in the price range. So I place order for one. Apparently if you live in an apartment or condo complex you're not good enough to buy one of his barrels. He found out I lived in a condo, and cancelled the order without any notice. He must have google mapped my address. Who runs a business and has time to do that? I have NEVER run into a retailer that refused to ship to certain type of dwelling. The other issue I had was his rant about being so pro-2A, but then proudly dissed those that live in places w/ strict gun laws (IL, MA, CA, etc). How is that solidarity for 2A? He has since taken that 2A stuff down.

On the Grendel barrel web pages he concedes there are more high BC bullets for 6.5 than 6.8; but if you look in the FAQ he rants against the grendel, he tries to blame his dislike for the Grendel because of the people around the caliber. Yet he is still willing to make money off selling grendel barrels, he has no backbone in my book. He rails against 0.136 bolts, saying how 0.125 is so much better, yet sells barrels to headspaced w/ 0.136 bolts, again no backbone.

Yeah I got issues w/ that guy, and doubt I would ever buy anything from him after my dealings with him; has got some issues way beyond his dislike for Grendel and his boner for 6.8.

I saved up for 6.5 Grendel SS Criterion 18" and haven't looked back. Just cleaned it again today and amazed how little it copper fouls. Starting to work up handloads and it's coming together. Had the green mountain group buys been around I would have gotten one of those in 18" or 20". Was thinking of getting 20" group buy barrel, but have other annual bills coming due and they're down to the last two, so I'll probably miss out on one of those. Maybe wait for the next Lilja group buy.

[6.5Geo]

I'll pile on here against this guy. When I was first looking at getting Grendel barrel, he was on the list. They were cheap enough "on sale" and reviews were decent compared to other barrels in the price range. So I place order for one. Apparently if you live in an apartment or condo complex you're not good enough to buy one of his barrels. He found out I lived in a condo, and cancelled the order without any notice. He must have google mapped my address. Who runs a business and has time to do that? I have NEVER run into a retailer that refused to ship to certain type of dwelling. The other issue I had was his rant about being so pro-2A, but then proudly dissed those that live in places w/ strict gun laws (IL, MA, CA, etc). How is that solidarity for 2A? He has since taken that 2A stuff down.

In all fairness to ARP Barrels, he has gotten a bad rap for a few questionable decisions he has made.

1. He got severely ripped off when a mailman dropped off a large order of barrels at a community mailbox at multiple unit housing complex that were stolen. He is a small business man that can't take that big of a hit to the pocket book

2. He has always had a problem with the 6.5Grendel. The 264 LBC came before the 6.5Grendel and for all purposes is the same cartridge. The designer of the 264 LBC did not have the financial backing that the 6.5Grendel did and in his opinion the 264 LBC designer was railroaded.

A man is entitled to his opinion and you are entitled to spend your money as you see fit. I do think that a lot you read on the internet concerning ARP Barrels is regurgitated information. That's not to say some of you have bad experiences with ARP. I live in California and have bought several barrels (.223, 6.5 Grendel and 6.8SPC) from him with no issues. They have been the most accurate best finished barrels I have used, all under $200.

My thoughts...

[grayfox]

Geo,
like many on this thread have written, mine are personal experiences, not internet reading. If they are working for you then that's great, but doesn't change my thinking.
I personally don't have unabashed love for any caliber, for me it is only a question of what works and what I can load and shoot well. The 6.5G, like 6 Creed, 6.5 Creed, 308, 243, 223, etc etc... 22lr... these are all doing well for me and I do not have a need for any 6.8's. Like I said I had some but they failed to perform and weren't filling any need in my setup. But if they do it for you I'm glad for ya.
Life is truly too short to keep ranting about some other guy's design... I prefer to keep it light-hearted...

[FLshooter]

I’d go on Optics planet.Criterion Hybrid 26 inch barrel $270 free ship
Call them up and see if they will give you a 10% called they usually do. If they do not,use WORK7 That’ll get you 5 % off

[6.5Geo]

Geo,
like many on this thread have written, mine are personal experiences, not internet reading. If they are working for you then that's great, but doesn't change my thinking.
I personally don't have unabashed love for any caliber, for me it is only a question of what works and what I can load and shoot well. The 6.5G, like 6 Creed, 6.5 Creed, 308, 243, 223, etc etc... 22lr... these are all doing well for me and I do not have a need for any 6.8's. Like I said I had some but they failed to perform and weren't filling any need in my setup. But if they do it for you I'm glad for ya.
Life is truly too short to keep ranting about some other guy's design... I prefer to keep it light-hearted...

Understood, much respect. Some people do not know how to keep it light-hearted and are always with their panties in a bunch!

[LRRPF52]

In all fairness to banned vendor, he has gotten a bad rap for a few questionable decisions he has made.

1. He got severely ripped off when a mailman dropped off a large order of barrels at a community mailbox at multiple unit housing complex that were stolen. He is a small business man that can't take that big of a hit to the pocket book

2. He has always had a problem with the 6.5Grendel. The 264 LBC came before the 6.5Grendel and for all purposes is the same cartridge. The designer of the 264 LBC did not have the financial backing that the 6.5Grendel did and in his opinion the 264 LBC designer was railroaded.

A man is entitled to his opinion and you are entitled to spend your money as you see fit. I do think that a lot you read on the internet concerning his Barrels is regurgitated information. That's not to say some of you have bad experiences with banned vendor. I live in California and have bought several barrels (.223, 6.5 Grendel and 6.8SPC) from him with no issues. They have been the most accurate best finished barrels I have used, all under $200.

My thoughts...

1. If I was running a shipping company, I would offer insurance for people who ship high value items in case something like this happens. Oh wait....

2. There is no such chamber as a "264 LBC". There is such a chamber as a .264 LBC-AR, which came years after 6.5 Grendel. "LBC" stands for Les Baer Custom. Les Baer was one of the first companies to license 6.5 Grendel reamers from Alexander Arms, where AA would order the reamers, run them through an optical comparator to make sure they were held to a tight standard, then ship them to companies that wanted to license the design before it gained SAAMI acceptance. Les Baer didn't want his reamer flow bottle-necked that way, so he spec'd his own ammo and went to a chamber design that has a tighter neck at .295", with a freebore and leade set up for the 123gr SMK. Black Hills made the ammo for him, and it was a higher pressure load.

You might be thinking about 6.5 PPC and 6.5 CSS, which were Arne Brennan's wildcats off the PPC case, necked up from 6mm PPC to 6.5mm. You can clearly see the difference between 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 PPC, and 6.5x39:



Bill Alexander worked with Janne P. from Lapua to develop the brass for 6.5 Grendel rather than modifying PPC cases, so that the neck thickness, walls, and shoulder datum would all provide the performance he was looking for.

He also spent over $11,500 in a multitude of reamer designs trying to find a chamber that would shoot all the ogive shapes well, which was a major challenge with the wide range of 6.5mm projectiles available on the market even back then.

[Herzo]

I just checked X-Caliber.net, they have a 16 inch SST SPR contour mid-length in stock for $240. They can fix you up with a Rubber City bolt for $100.
I have their 28 inch 6mm Grendel and am very happy with it.